The nation's equity market is expected to continue its recent momentum and strengthen in the second half of this year, with the benchmark index likely to hit 9,000 points, led by high-tech stocks, anticipated capital backflow and robust foreign investment, analysts say.
"As the traditional peak season is approaching, we expect the previously laggard high-tech firms to play as locomotive stocks and lead the TAIEX higher," George Hou (侯明甫), managing director and chief investment officer at JF Asset Management (Taiwan) Ltd, told a media briefing yesterday.
Rumors of mergers and acquisitions, as well as strategic partnerships or investments by private equity firms, would continue to stimulate high-tech stocks in the future, Hou said.
The TAIEX rose 38.17 points, or 0.46 percent, to close at 8338.88 on turnover of NT$133.91 billion (US$4 billion) yesterday, with about three of the benchmark's constituents climbing for every two that fell.
Foreign investors bought a net amount of NT$3.42 billion worth of shares yesterday. Overseas investors have purchased NT$23.18 billion net since the beginning of this month, the Taiwan Stock Exchange's data showed.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (
Fubon Securities Investment Services Co (富邦投顧) said it expected the TAIEX to soar to between 8,800 and 9,000 by the end of this year.
The forecast is backed by continuous net foreign investment inflow, amounting to US$49.5 billion over the past two-and-a-half years, a possible backflow of overseas Taiwanese capital on recovering political environment and the cheap valuations of local stocks, Fubon Securities Investment president Hsaio Chien-hsiang (蕭乾祥) said at a seminar last Wednesday.
Similarly, Citigroup Inc raised its forecast for the TAIEX in 12 months to 9,550, up from 8,450, saying earnings are improving and shares are relatively cheap after trailing gains elsewhere in Asia.
The measure is up 6.6 percent this year, while the Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index has risen 7.4 percent.
Financial stocks yesterday appeared weak with the financial sub-index dropping marginally by 0.04 percent after the Legislative Yuan approved the controversial personal bankruptcy law last Friday, the first legislation of its type in the nation, which sparked concerns that consumer credit abuse storm may re-emerge.
"We do not expect a huge impact on local lenders following the removal of some highly disputed clauses from the final version of the law," Fiona Uang (
The controversial clauses included the exemption of debtors who claimed bankruptcy from repaying the principle amount on housing mortgages for six to eight years without risking their residences being auctioned.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS